WWE News: SmackDown Live viewership takes a dip

Despite three huge matches, SmackDown Live suffers drop in ratings.

This week’s SmackDown Live featured a two #1 Contender’s matches for the WWE Championship and SmackDown Tag team Championship along with a title match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Despite the huge matches, the viewership of the show took a dip in ratings compared to last week’s show.

According to WrestlingInc, this week’s SmackDown Live’s ratings took a dip from last week’s despite the three huge matches on the show. This week’s SmackDown garnered 2.361 million viewers. This was comparatively low to the previous episode which drew 2.479 million viewers for the post-TLC show.

SmackDown Live was ranked #9 for the night in the cable TV viewership. The show was also ranked as #2 in the 18-49 demographic for the night, behind Curse of Oak Island, indicating that the show had huge draw with the adults. The lack of midcard talents and a limited number of Superstars available may have been the reason for the dip in viewership.

Similarly, in comparison to last week’s show, Monday Night Raw also took a dip in viewership as the ratings dropped from 2.758 million viewers to 2.976 million viewers. Despite being the go-home show before the Raw exclusive PPV Roadblock: End of the Line, the show took a dip in ratings.

The dip in ratings has been a huge thorn in the side of WWE for a long time now. WWE is struggling a lot to keep afloat in the ratings with SmackDown lacking the drawing power of John Cena and the generic displeasure surrounding the Raw programming.

One of the prime rumoured reasons for these dip in ratings is the lack of drawing power of the present crop of Superstars compared to the legends of the Attitude Era. WWE will strive hard to overcome these setbacks as the Road to WrestleMania draws near. Take a look at the ten best moments from SmackDown live this year:.